Choudhury and Dasmunshi had been PCC presidents of the state in different times in the past.

Chowdhury, known for his aggressive posture against West Bengal's ruling Left Front succeeds protegee Somen Mitra who had resigned from the post owning moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the February-March Lok Sabha polls. Apart from Choudhury, no Congress candidate could win from any of the 41 Lok Sabha seats in the state. This is Chowdhury's seventh term in the Lok Sabha.

This was Khan Chaudhury's third appointment as PCC presidentthe first being in 1977-78, followed by 1987. Khan Chaudhury, who was removed from the PCC presidentship in 1991, did not lose heart andcontinued to serve the party.

The 76-year-old Congressman, popularly known as `Barkatda', Abu Barkat Ataul Ghani Khan Chaudhury held different portfolios in the cabinet of Indira and Rajiv ranging from railways to energy.

Known for his tirade against the ruling Left Front in West Bengal, he earned a name for himself by providing jobs to unemployed youth in his traditional constituency of Malda in North Bengal, setting up projects and making Malda and the region more accessible by rail. Chaudhury did a lot to bring Malda on the national map and was considered the man to take up local issues with Delhi.

Elected for the first time to the state Assembly from Sujapur constituency in 1952, Khan Chaudhury became irrigation minister in the Ajay Mukherjee cabinet in the state in 1971. Chaudhury was drafted to the Union Cabinet by Indira in 1980.

Meanwhile, Khan Chaudhury said that he would be leaving for Delhi on July 10 to meet the AICC leadership. None of the PCC leaders were available for comment on KhanChaudhury's appointment as PCC chief.